great and puzzling news...

The good news:

Thanks to a radical shift in thinking among independents and Democrats during the past year, for the first time in Gallup Poll tracking a clear majority of Americans now approves of gay marriage.

A new Gallup Poll released this morning finds that this month 53% of Americans say same-sex marriage should be recognized in law as equally valid with traditional male-female marriages.

It's always great to see the populace ahead of its leaders; but with the Strom Thurmonds of equal marriage rights John McCain and Rick Santorum still going strong, we'll probably get federal recognition for same-sex marriage in about thirty years. After all, we found out about Thurmond's mixed-race shame-child a few decades late. How long before we discover Messrs. S & M's secret rentboys?

And speaking of hypocrisy, here's the weird part of the study:

Support for gay marriage is higher among Catholics than Protestants, among the unmarried and among those who attend church less frequently.

Seriously, Catholics: is there anything your leaders say that that you actually follow? Or is the built-in guilt like an invitation to flout church doctrine? Not that there's anything wrong with that...

[ToTT]